How to enable different mobile provider SIM-card in Google Chromebook

I have purchased online the [easyazon-link asin=”B0067U9VUC” locale=”us”]Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi 12.1-Inch Chromebook (Black)[/easyazon-link] with 3G and WiFi enabled. So far I have it for 2 months and I can say –  I love it. It is very smart and cool device and works for me very well since I have spent majority of my time in browser anyway. As you may know if you purchased the Chromebook in the USA as there is only few counties where you can buy it, the Chromebook is preset with Verizon mobile access as you get 100MB FREE data – well, not good for me since I am not in the USA. I am in Canada.

If you enter your SIM card into Chromebook you will notice that does not let you change the provider a sit is preset and ready for the Verizon. However you can change it very quickly by following these few steps:

  • Sign in into your Chromebook
  • Press left CTRL+ALT+T and you will be taken to console screen now type in exactly this
modem_set_carrier Generic UMTS
  • you should get message that it will take around 2 minutes to prepare
  • type exit
  • Console screen will close and now you shut down your Chromebook
  • Insert your SIM card into slot and power up
  • Once in login screen in right up corner click on Connection and if your carrier is supported you will see it there, if not, there is option Search for mobile carrier and it will search and list available carriers in your area

In my case I know that it will work with these Canadian providers: Rogers, Telus and Bell. Wind Mobile is unfortunately not supported. I am running on Rogers and getting 3G connection 🙂 .In case you want to preset your Chromebook back to Verizon, again press CTRL+ALT+T and in console type this:

modem_set_carrier Verizon Wireless

Again reboot and you are back in default configuration. If anybody else tried different providers I would like to know. Leave a message in the comments.

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5 Replies to “How to enable different mobile provider SIM-card in Google Chromebook”

    1. No, the SIM card does not come with Chromebook. You can get one from Verizon for the promotion that you get FREE 100MB .. I am using my SIM card from carrier in Canada – Rogers. You can try yours carrier once you run the command on Chromebook, it will accept any SIM card. By default Chromebook is configured to accept the Verizon SIM which I cannot use 🙂 and won’t accept other SIM unless you run the command 🙂

  1. Thank you! Yours is probably the only post in the internet discussing this problem! I have a Samsung Chromebook 3G which I bought on Amazon. I comes preset with Verizon Wireless as the default Mobile data provider. I am now in Vietnam and couldnt get the local SIM (Viettel) to work. It just did not show up! I followed your instruction but couldnt get to the console screen after pressing CTRL+SHIFT+T. Instead, pressing the combination, it just opened up the internet browser! What should I do? Thanks!

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